Posted on Tuesday, 17th January 2012 by Archie Norton
By the AllClearID Team
Jamie here, Chief Investigator at AllClear ID. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the Jump$tart National Educator Conference in Washington, DC. Jump$tart is a national organization “dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources.”
In the presentation I discussed our research on Child Identity Theft alongside the FTC who issued some tips on limiting the risks of Identity Theft. These pointers revolved around sharing information with an entity you likely regard as safe: your child’s school. Here’s an overview of the FTC’s tips:
- Contact the school: Find out who has access to your child’s personal information, and ensure that the records are stored safely.
- Think twice before filling out forms with personal information: Before you fill forms out consider how the information will be used, whether or not it will be shared, and who will have access. Then decide
When it comes to data breaches, how does 2011 compare with previous years? A new report from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) notes 535 breaches during 2011, involving 30.4 million sensitive records. But thats just a conservative estimate, since not all data breaches see the light of day. Because many states do not require companies to report data breaches to a central clearinghouse, data breaches occur that we never hear about, said PRC director Beth Givens in the report.